Pete Harden grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1942, and was assigned to the Medical Corps. He was trained as a surgical technician at Fort Benjamin Harrison, in Indianapolis, Indiana. In late spring of 1944, he was attached to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and deployed to the European Theater, landing at Edinburgh, Scotland. 
   Harden was billeted with a family in Kidderminster, England until June 12, when his unit was dispatched to Normandy. He served as a medic on battlefields in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Harden returned to New York City at the end of the war.